On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Christopher Barker <[email protected]> wrote: > Joshua D. Drake wrote: >> >> I do not recommend buying off-contract. It is usually a wash if you end >> up breaking the contract in terms of penalties versus buying >> off-contract and if you end up not breaking the contract you get a great >> deal. > > yup -- look at the specific numbers, but last I checked, EVERY carrier had > the same set-up -- sign a contract and we subsidize the hardware a lot, or > buy the hardware for an inflated price, and we'll charge EXACTLY the same > monthly rate -- no discount at all for providing your own hardware.
1) That's not the case. T-Mobile and Sprint both have (very slightly) discounted plans, although you have to dig for them. Having said that, the total savings last time I checked was only about $10 a month. 2) Even on carriers where it is the case (I'm looking at you, VZW and AT&T) usually the ETF is just a smidge over the difference anyway. Why bother getting a Droid X at $200 with a $350 ETF when you could buy a Droid X for $450 and get the same contract price? If you care enough about a phone to get a top-tier device, odds are good you aren't going to want that device in 2 years. > I really resent that scheme, and am hoping that some day they will simply > offer you the option of buying or renting the hardware, (with a reasonable > discount in exchange for a commitment to a contract, if you want). I've heard of contract pools, where everybody buys in at a membership tier and after some (short) amount of time the phone rotates down the ladder. I've never heard how well it works out though.... > But if you're going to buy the hardware outright, there are other options, > like the Nokia n900, for instance: it's not Android, and may not be > "established enough", but it is real genuine, familiar, full featured Linux, > including Python scripting. (the n900 is a bit old now, if you're thinking > about it, you might want to wait for the upcoming n9) Nice hardware on those things, there's one in the lab. Geremy Condra
